Mrs. Manns Wants to Walk on the Moon

I have always been fascinated by the stars. I remember curling up next to my Dad when I was a young whipper-snapper and asking him to tell me about the stars. I hope MY kids think I am as smart as I thought he was when it came to the stars...really...I thought the man WAS an astronaut. But that is the way it should be with dads and their daughters....or what I hope will be in my case, sons and their mothers (Freud would love that I typed that).

Kennedy has always been my Volcanologist. Rory is quieter about his dreams. He wants to go to the moon.

(but will be home by supper because he is living with me forever).

But really, he doesn't have to be home by lunch because I would likely be there with him. I want the moon rocks he promises me and the pictures on the moon that he tells me he will bring back for me, but really...I think I just want to go there myself.  (Keeping in mind that going to Hawaii with Kennedy sounds fun as well).I remember that when I was a kid I spent hours pondering the idea that an Earth colonization of the moon would happen in my life time.

Just today, Rory told me some more of his plans for moon conquest. The first step in his life dream is simple:

"Buy me a toy space shuttle."

Rock on. I can accomplish this feat. I can also buy him every book I can about Space. In fact, why don't we color some space pictures while we are at? A cardboard box rocket? Sure. Bring it on. I am going to space.

But I am not spaced out.

I just spent the last 3 hours creating a unit plan on the Grade One social studies cluster; "My Environment." So far, I have a title page...and a new cool website to explore. Well, it would be cool if I was teaching Space. I have just played on NASA's website for the past 1/2 hour. I googled my house on Google Earth. I looked at pictures of Buzz Aldrin Jr. I am so very engaged in this research that I am doing for some future trip to the moon. I think my space shuttle will be Artemis1*..which brings me to say...Apollo was a sun god and none of the shuttles named Apollo were visiting the sun. Just sayin'.

However, the moral of the story is this: I just became very excited about space again. I had forgotten how interesting this topic was to me. How often do little kids have big dreams and we teach them the 'reality' of small town life? I remember when I decided that I couldn't be an astronaut. I remember realizing that I had to be a stellar math student to be an astronaut (and giving up on Math).

 I remember deciding to be a teacher so that I could encourage and support students on their journey to the stars.

(oh, and no worries, I am pretty good at math..don't worry about your students in my future classes)

* Artemis is Apollo's twin sister and was Goddess of the Moon...so why were the Apollo missions not named "Artemis" ???